I feel that our traditional metrics for measuring success and failures on the powerplay and penalty kill fail a bit. They don't account for context—a team that gives up a goal in the first five seconds of a PK is judged the same as a team that allows a goal in the final second of a PK—and killing off a full five-minute major is judged to be less valuable than killing off a four-minute double minor. These are minor quibbles and given the vast amount of powerplays throughout a season, they do tend to even out.

But the team does have one slight problem when it comes to man advantages. Specifically, the team has drawn just over 2.6 penalty calls per game, or one full call below the NHL average. Put an unsuccessful powerplay with a team that doesn't have a lot of players that can draw penalties, and you'll wind up not generating a lot of offence.

I found it a curious decision that he was scratched on Tuesday. He's drawn four penalties on the season so far and hasn't taken any. Maybe that would be a more appreciated ability if the Canucks could get some goals on the powerplay.

Other Canucks with positive penalty differentials? Daniel Sedin has drawn five and taken three, Zack Kassian has drawn three and taken one, and Brad Richardson, Ryan Stanton, Alex Burrows and Zac Dalpe are all +1 by this measure. It's a slim sample, but something Booth and Richardson normally do well at.

7.7% - The unpredictability of shooting percentage

Over the last 15 games, just 7.7% of Ryan Kesler's shots have found the back of the net. I was intending for this number to be lower when I wrote this section, but Kesler had to go score a goal (and draw a penalty!) against New York. There have been some people antsy in Vancouver about when Kesler is going to put it all together, but most of his problems lately have been caused by low shooting percentages, as well as the fact he was so good in the 2010-2011 season, perhaps there's some misunderstanding of Kesler's offensive ability. He's on pace for 29 goals over 82 games, which would be an amazing season for any player. That's assuming he stays healthy.

Just to show you the unpredictability of a player's shooting percentage (goals divided by shots), look at this graph. Kesler's career-to-date (numbers from Hockey Reference's game logs) shooting rate is in blue, and his 15-game rolling shooting percentage is in green:

I like looking at graphs like these because they remind me how unpredictable hockey can be. Kesler has spent a fair bit of time converting below his career shooting rate, especially since that dominant 41-goal season three years ago.

Kesler has four goals in 11 games, but his shots per game rate is currently through the roof and if he keeps that up, he might break it wide open. Note how the lows on the above graph are often followed by highs. It's like a stock ticker. For you Fantasy Hockey Players, it's a good idea to keep note on which forwards shoot often, but well below their career rate after a month or so. Don't make the mistake of trading a player away during a cold snap, especially if they're generating shots at a rate Kesler is.

If healthy, Kesler should be good for anywhere between 2-3 shots a game. Any rate over 2.5, in practice, is excellent.